Soluții

Auditul aplicațiilor instalate și al versiunilor software

Un utilizator raportează o problemă cu o aplicație și trebuie să verificăm dacă aceasta este instalată și ce versiune rulează.

Pentru aplicațiile instalate prin Windows:

Get-ItemProperty `
HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*,
HKLM:\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* |
Where-Object {$_.DisplayName} |
Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher |
Sort-Object DisplayName

Pentru căutarea unei aplicații specifice:

Get-ItemProperty `
HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*,
HKLM:\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* |
Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like "*Chrome*"} |
Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher

Se poate verifica rapid dacă aplicația există pe stație și ce versiune este instalată.

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Determinarea timpului de funcționare și a ultimei reporniri a sistemului

Este necesar să aflăm când a fost pornit ultima dată calculatorul, de exemplu pentru verificarea unui restart sau pentru troubleshooting.

Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem |
Select-Object CSName,
@{Name="LastBoot";Expression={$_.LastBootUpTime}}

Pentru un rezultat mai ușor de citit:

$boot = (Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem).LastBootUpTime
"Computer: $env:COMPUTERNAME"
"Last Boot: $boot"

Se poate determina rapid data și ora ultimei porniri/restartări a sistemului.

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Verificarea și monitorizarea spațiului disponibil pe volumele sistemului

Stația este lentă sau apar erori la instalarea aplicațiilor/Windows Update și este necesar să verificăm rapid spațiul disponibil.

Verificarea spațiului liber pe toate volumele locale folosind PowerShell.

Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem |
Select-Object Name,
@{Name="TotalGB";Expression={[math]::Round(($_.Used + $_.Free) / 1GB,2)}},
@{Name="FreeGB";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Free / 1GB,2)}}

Pentru identificarea volumelor cu mai puțin de 10 GB disponibili:

Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem |
Where-Object {$_.Free -lt 10GB} |
Select-Object Name,
@{Name="FreeGB";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Free / 1GB,2)}}

Administratorul poate identifica rapid stațiile/volumele care necesită curățare sau extindere.

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How to repurpose an old Kindle

There are plenty of things you can do with an old Kindle, from loading it with children’s books and giving it to your kids to trading it in for a newer model. You may be surprised by how much more you can do with an old Kindle. Here are five real projects that I’ve done with my jailbroken fourth-generation Kindle.

We tend to take Wikipedia for granted. You can find information on an incredible number of topics, all on a single website. The trouble is, you usually can’t check Wikipedia without an internet connection. How are you supposed to settle that debate when you’re camping off the grid?

A simple solution is to turn your old Kindle into a small Wikipedia library that will work completely offline. Kiwix is free, open-source software that makes websites and other references available offline. The content is available as compressed ZIM archives, and you can create your own bespoke Wikipedia library to upload to your Kindle and check whenever you want, even without a network connection.

When I order something online that I’m looking forward to receiving (such as a new tiny eReader), I will regularly check my phone to see when it’s due to arrive. Often, I’ll check multiple times before there are any updates. I decided to turn my old Kindle into a package tracker so that I could see updates without having to check them.

The project pulls information from the emails Amazon sends me when an order status changes. This information triggers an automation running on a Raspberry Pi that updates the image displayed on the Kindle’s screen. I can see my package’s current status with a glance at the Kindle.

A Kindle was never designed to show video, and while the slow refresh rate of the E-Ink screen means that it will never be practical for watching your latest Netflix obsession, it is possible to get a Kindle to show a very slow-refresh video feed. I set up an automation in Home Assistant that repeatedly takes snapshot images from my video doorbell. It then serves these to the Kindle, and my Kindle 4 can update the images about once a second, creating a very basic video stream. When my doorbell rings, the Kindle can display the feed. Even with the slow refresh rate, it’s more than good enough to see who is at the door so I don’t go answer unnecessarily.

Most projects on this list require a jailbroken Kindle, but this one works even on a standard Kindle. A stock Kindle can display photos that you upload, meaning you can use it as an E-Ink photo frame.

While a Kindle’s E-Ink display isn’t ideal for high-resolution, full-color images, black-and-white images can look surprisingly good on the screen, even on older models. The best part is that a Kindle uses hardly any power when displaying a static image, so the Kindle can potentially leave the image on the screen for weeks without needing to be plugged into power.

Jailbreaking does give you additional options. With a jailbroken Kindle, you can set up a folder of photos and have the Kindle automatically cycle through the images, just like a typical digital photo frame. A Kindle isn’t designed for writing. Even the Kindle Keyboard, with its built-in physical keyboard, is a nightmare to write on for any length of time. That doesn’t mean that your Kindle can’t be used as part of a distraction-free writing setup.

You can use something such as a Raspberry Pi to provide the computing power while the Kindle acts as an E-Ink terminal. By connecting a keyboard to the Pi, you can type away and see everything you write on the Kindle’s E-Ink screen. One benefit is that the display is far less susceptible to glare than a standard laptop screen, so it’s a good option for working outdoors in bright sunlight.

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How to detect brute-force or failed logon attempts on Windows with event viewer and PowerShell

How to see who tried to sign in to the machine, from where, with which account, and how to tell a typo from an attack.

Prerequisites

  • Administrator rights (the Security log is restricted)
  • Logon auditing enabled. This is the default on Windows client versions, and you can confirm it with:
  auditpol /get /subcategory:"Logon"

Look for “Success and Failure”.

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